Hollow

One in three American towns is dying, with more people leaving than staying. McDowell County in the eastern inland of West Virginia is just such a place. It’s population peaked in the 1950s at around 100,000, but a boom-and-bust economy means that it has fallen to just a little over 22,000. explores the lives of people who have chosen to stay in their communities and help preserve and improve the place they call "home." This web documentary introduces us to 30 residents who all have a strong sense of belonging and faith in the future of their dwindling communities. There are citizens here who run a food bank, gym and literacy training center, while another records the area's natural beauty for posterity. Elaine McMillion worked with community members to collect their stories and train locals to shoot their own content. Through the interactive execution by information architect and designer Jeff Soyk and web developer Robert Hall, these short stories have been transformed into an immersive environment containing an impressive wealth of material: video interviews, photographs, data visualizations, quotes and dramatic soundscapes. Scroll along and they pass before you like pictures on a roll of film. The result is an authentic document for a community that has been misrepresented and underrepresented for decades.